Onward and upward

Friday

Aug 8, 2014 at 2:27 PMAug 8, 2014 at 2:27 PM

By Stephen Tobeystobey@wickedlocal.com

Tristan Chen put in a lot of work getting ready for the USA Climbing Youth National Championships.The hard work paid off for him. Chen, a recent graduate of Concord-Carlisle High School, placed 10th overall last month at the Stone Summit Climbing Center in Atlanta."Iíve been training a lot," Chen said. "Iíve been training four or five days a week. I felt I did pretty well."In climbing, the events are scored according to who can go the highest before falling off the wall. In the finals, the wall was 65 feet.Before reaching the nationals, Chen placed first in a regional competition and first in a divisional championship. He competes for Team Waimea, which is based at the Boston Rock Gym in Woburn and coached by Aleskey Shureyev.Chen has been climbing for eight years and has competed for six. His older brothers, Fletcher, a 2012 graduate of C-C, and Rowland, a 2012 C-C grad, also climbed. His twin sister, Cora, also recently graduated from C-C and won a USA Gymnastics Excel state title last spring."I just decided I wanted to start climbing and I liked it a lot," Chen said.The challenge of climbing, according to Chen, is both physical and mental."Climbing requires good technique," Chen said. "You look at the wall and figure out what to do. You donít waste time doing any unnecessary movements."You need to stay in a zone. You canít check out. You can be on the wall a long time, sometimes as long as 30 minutes."This fall, Chen will attend the University of Denver, where he will study engineering. He will be close to his brother, Rowland, who attends the Colorado School of Mines."Iíll go to a gym in Golden, the same one my brother goes to," he said. "I just want to keep climbing."